Monday, January 20, 2014

Death
Metal Underground

Newsletter
1/13-1/19

Because
Metal Is Art

Sadistic Metal Reviews 01-12-14

What are Sadistic Metal Reviews? Music is art when it has
something to say, entertainment when it’s distracting. Since none
of us have infinite time, we pick the best and strongest music we
can and mock the rest. The path to true metal is littered with
sweet, sweet poseur tears and the occasional gem of non-failure, a
secret delight for the wary traveler…

Welcome to the strange and protean world of Steve Cefala,
black/doom metal musician, MMA fighter, former adult entertainment
actor, and now, the force behind the returning Dawning and its
unique brand of slow melodic metal with horror movie keyboards.

Dawning was born in 1996 at the hands of Mr. Cefala and a close
cadre of collaborators. Dormant for many years, but never
forgotten, the band was resurrected with the – – –/Dawning split
that showcased a classic song for the band and gave it new
arrangement and orchestration.

We were lucky to catch up with Mr. Cefala between his many
high-energy ventures and get in a few words about the split, the
history of Dawning, and its future both as band and concept.

Not every band from the frozen north aimed for melodic and
energetic interpretations of death metal; many, like fellow Finns
Belial or the Swedes in Obscurity, chose instead to write grinding
cudgels of primitive bass noise that sounded like a winter
avalanche of the soul overtaking all hope. Agonized created a
six-song demo in this vein and sadly were lost to time after that
point.

Nile guitarist Dallas Toler-Wade has unveiled his new project
Narcotic Wasteland with the debut of their self-titled album today
and the release of a sample song, “Shackles of Sobriety.”

Based on this song, it’s clear the album comes from the modern
metal camp and not the death metal camp. It starts with an
impressive melodic metal introduction, then drops into the
trademark of modern metal, which is Pantera-influenced vocals
leading the guitars, reversing the classic death metal formula.
Thus most of what you hear is vocal rhythm with guitar keeping
constant texture on the backdrop, not guitar leading and vocals
filling in secondary texture as all the best death metal bands
did.

This creates a “rant effect” which makes me want to scream “Are
you talkin’ to me?” at the screen.

To those who have watched metal for some time, it presents a
paradox. To the public, it seems like a railroad, where a line of
cars stops and then we see what is in each, one at a time. To an
experienced watcher, it more resembles an ocean, with currents
swirling below and influenced by air above, and periodically the
crest of a wave emerges before being dragged down by the rest,
obliterated and recycled.

One of the warmer undercurrents in the metal ocean is “true
metal,” which is that which stays true to the solid line of
evolution leading from metal’s origin. As part of this movement,
bands across the globe are continuing to make music that we
associate with earlier decades, except that it’s newly created and
generated from a contemporary impulse if not contemporary
influences. Cruxiter, a Texas heavy metal/guitar rock band, is
part of this movement.

Blue skied days make me think of aliens landing amongst us like
in the old science fiction films. Except this time, the aliens are
disappointed in what they find. “We have analyzed your
transmissions,” the vocoded digi-translator says. “We are hoping
to contact the people of Aurelius, Plato, Nietzsche and the first
Morbid Angel album.”

Sadly there is no one here who can help them. The old Romans are
dead, the ancient Greeks long gone, even the days when
philosophers wrote about real topics are over, and Morbid Angel
have ventured on to different goals and styles. If the aliens came
looking for old school death metal, they’d find themselves
presented with over a million options, very few of which resembled
the glory of what once was.

Haven in Shadows – “Legend of the Wolf” and “Moments of Honour”
Rather than the more exoteric approach favored by other bands,
these releases attempt to answer the question posed by the
original wave of black metal: “What have we forgotten and how can
we recall it?” Meditative at heart, this is something lost within
the current generation of black metal and is worth rediscovering
again.

Morfin emerge from the potent musical texture of the late 1980s
and the transitional era between speed metal and death metal where
Sepultura, Destruction, Kreator and Sadus ruled the day. This
period was known for its tendency to wrap up a diverse influences
under a speed/death banner and make music that straddled the
genres, which often produced a potent ferment of riffcraft but
left songwriting behind as it tried to balance many diverse
elements in the same band.

What’s an oration of disorder? What most people think of as
“order” consists in telling other people what they want to hear
and then manipulating them. That’s how you sell them products. But
the selling of products is the opposite of what art and listeners
need, which is a harsh voice to tell us the truth.

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